Art and free speech are essential to a healthy democracy—Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB) calls on our neighbors across Santa Barbara and the Central Coast to help safeguard the region’s only dedicated, free contemporary art museum. Once again communities are in crisis—and this time, artists and art institutions are on the front line standing up against authoritarianism. Join us.

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — In its 50th year as a forum for art and ideas, the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB) is calling on the community to help safeguard its future. Today, the museum launches the MCASB Future Fund, a membership and year-end campaign inviting sustaining gifts to protect free exhibitions and public programs — and to uphold artists’ voices at a moment of heightened threats to free speech, democracy, and community well-being.

“This is not just about a few wealthy donors — it’s about all of us,” said Dalia Garcia, MCASB’s Executive Director. “Five or 50 dollars a month keeps admission free, allows us to bring contemporary art to more of Santa Barbara’s communities, including north Santa Barbara County, and opens the doors to people who too often have been left out of museums. At a time when immigrants, communities of color, and free speech itself are under attack, MCASB must remain a space where care, creativity, and radical imagination for our shared future can thrive. As we celebrate 50 years, your support will carry this work forward for the next generation.”

Under Garcia’s leadership, MCASB has entered a new era of accessibility and visibility for Indigenous immigrant and undocumented communities in Santa Barbara County. She championed the Día de Los Muertos Calenda in downtown Santa Barbara, which grew from 1,500 to over 10,000 participants in just two years, creating space for cultural heritage and contemporary expression. This year, however, MCASB has made the difficult decision to pause the Calenda as an act of solidarity with communities facing escalating threats under the current political reality. This decision was made by consensus with the immigrant Indigenous communities of musicians, dancers, artists, and culture bearers that have collaborated with the museum over the past two years. A Mixteca immigrant woman from Santa Maria, Garcia has long advocated through the Guelaguetza committee, MICOP, and now MCASB for greater access to the arts and inclusion of historically marginalized voices.

“I know what it feels like to be on the outside of cultural spaces,” Garcia said. “At MCASB, we are opening the doors wide — making sure Indigenous, immigrant, and undocumented communities see themselves represented, valued, and heard. This is what it means to build a museum for everyone.”

Garcia’s leadership has redefined the museum as a space of belonging and cultural visibility. Board President Frederick Janka underscores the urgency of this work, noting that the future of MCASB is directly tied to the defense of free expression. “Art and artists are essential to democracy. Supporting MCASB means safeguarding free expression and resisting authoritarianism,” Janka said. “By investing in the Future Fund, you’re not just supporting art — you’re uplifting under-resourced communities and protecting the only free space for contemporary art, ideas, and healing on the Central Coast.”

 

A 50-Year Legacy—And a Future to Protect

Founded in 1976, by artists for artists, in the midst of global turmoil, the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, now MCASB, was envisioned as a platform for art and ideas. Its mission is even more urgent today. With attacks on free expression, rising authoritarianism, and deepening inequities, the need for spaces that nurture creativity, amplify underrepresented voices, and build community has never been greater.

Adopted in 2025 as part of the implementation of solutions-based methodologies developed by Readying The Museum, the museum’s Accountability Statement and community agreements reaffirm its commitment to reimagining the role of museums: centering historically excluded communities, practicing transparency, and building relationships based on respect, trust, and shared responsibility. MCASB’s board and staff are working to realign institutional power with those who most need and deserve to be heard — artists, young people, immigrants, and communities of color across the Central Coast.

 

Why Support Matters

Free Admission: MCASB is one of the only museums in the region with free admission for all, ensuring access regardless of income.

Community Engagement: From Santa Barbara to Santa Maria, MCASB partners with schools, community organizations, and artists to expand cultural access.

Artists’ Voices: MCASB amplifies the creativity of local, national, and international artists who challenge us to think differently and imagine better futures. Support next generation arts leaders: MCASB’s Roots & Branches Arts Fellowship amplifies and nurtures Black, Latinx/e, LGTBQ+, and Indigenous artists who are caring for and leading their communities. Gifts up to $250 will be matched by an anonymous donor until December 31, 2025. 

Democracy & Care: In times of political and cultural division, the museum remains a space for dialogue, reflection, and care.

 

Current Exhibitions: DJ Javier: San Milano Drive, Cole Sternberg: the wind is heavy which blows between a horse’s ears, and Godofredo Astudillo: Makahiya: I wanted you to feel the same

Examples of MCASB’s mission in action include the current exhibition at the main museum space in Paseo Nuevo, San Milano Drive (Oct. 5, 2025–Apr. 26, 2026), the debut solo museum show by Santa Barbara–based Filipino-American artist DJ Javier. This ambitious installation brings together paintings, murals, sculptures, and interactive works that celebrate Filipino heritage, surf culture, and the Central Coast community. Javier describes the exhibition as “a love letter to all the things that influenced and raised me,” while also imagining new futures for representation and belonging.

With works like the San Milano Sari-Sari marketplace, the Nipa Hut gathering space, and the interactive Videoke Machine, the exhibition transforms MCASB into a dynamic community hub. Public programs — from youth nights to Día de los Muertos activations and karaoke evenings — ensure that San Milano Drive is not only a show to see but a space to gather, participate, and imagine together.

The recent and ongoing project by Cole Sternberg, the wind is heavy which blows between a horse’s ears,  features printed vinyl photo murals on the museum facade and on storefronts throughout the Paseo Nuevo mall. Juxtaposing two seemingly disparate visuals — the serenity of a horse in a pasture and the text "treat engineered generational trauma" — the work explores how engineered trauma manifests in countless forms, including institutional violence, warmongering, and environmental destruction. “We hide under desks to shield ourselves from both earthquakes and mass shootings,” Sternberg noted, “Our homes are consumed by wildfires and bombings. These burdens, heavy and omnipresent, demand acknowledgment — and perhaps, healing.”

Makahiya: I wanted you to feel the same is the debut solo exhibition by Los Angeles-based Filipino-American artist Godofredo Astudillo. Astudillo is the first of two winners of the annual Call For Entries program for the MCASB Satellite at The Riviera Beach House. Rooted in memory, loss, and recovery, his current series of paintings is about growing up in Los Angeles in the ’80s and ’90s, and returning as an adult. Navigating themes of intimacy, transformation, and the elusive nature of human connection, Astudillo  re-examines personal histories, transforming fleeting emotions into enduring visual metaphors.

This is the type of work that sustaining gifts to the MCASB Future Fund make possible: free, groundbreaking exhibitions that celebrate identity, invite dialogue, and build cultural pride while remaining accessible to everyone.

 

How to Give

Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara is a tax-exempt organization as defined by IRS Section 501(c)(3), Tax ID: 95-03384859.

The MCASB Future Fund: Make a sustaining monthly gift (as little as $5/month), or give $50/month or $50/year in honor of MCASB’s 50th anniversary. Monthly gifts provide the most stability.

Membership & Thanks: All Future Fund donations include a one-year membership with perks and a thank-you gift.

Ways to Donate: 

• Give online at https://www.mcasantabarbara.org/donate/
• By check to Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, 653 Paseo Nuevo, SB, CA 93101
• Appreciated securities 
• Your donor advised fund
• or set up employer matching

Contact: hello@mcasantabarbara.org

 

About the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB)

Founded in 1976 as a forum for art and ideas, the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara is a nonprofit art museum with free admission for all. MCASB presents contemporary art exhibitions, education, and public programs that cultivate critical inquiry, community care, and cultural imagination across the California Central Coast and beyond. Learn more at mcasantabarbara.org.